


Schoolgirls

by DearSweetAnon



Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Queen (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Gender or Sex Swap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-23 08:27:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16615457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DearSweetAnon/pseuds/DearSweetAnon
Summary: Fareeda (soon to be Freddie) has just been sent off to boarding school to make her a properly educated and cultured girl. Unfortunately, her parents did not count on the crazy group of girls she would meet there, and, since they've got a very important competition to win, things are about to get much worse.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written fanfic in about two years (don't go looking at the old stuff, it's actual piss trash), but I've recently gone on a binge and have become obsessed. I couldn't stop myself from writing this, and I hope you can enjoy it, although it's probably quite poor quality. 
> 
> This is based off the actual boarding school that I go to, which is just outside London, and therefore I'm drawing very heavily on my experiences here. Some of the characters will be based on people I know, and some of the events will also be heavily based in things that have gone on here. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy, and just by the way - we all know what the inspiration for this was, don't we? ;)

“Do you have any questions, Fareeda?”  
Not expecting to be addressed, Fareeda looked up when the teacher spoke to her.  
“No - uh, no”, she stammered out, overcome with nervousness now that her parents would be leaving her at boarding school for the first time. The teacher in front of her smiled, her smooth waterfall of brown hair falling into her face. God, Fareeda wished she had nice hair like that. Her own hair was too wiry, and too greasy. The teacher mistook her sigh of self-deprecation for one of impatience, and smiled at her reassuringly.  
“Don’t worry, almost done! Now, you’ve got your timetable, got your house badge, got your uniform sorted out. And, I think, anything else can be sorted out by your buddy, who should be just outside soon. When you’ve said goodbye to your parents, pop back in and I’ll introduce you to Bryony. She’ll be the one who’ll show you around. Look at me, rambling on! Off you pop!” 

Fareeda was soon engulfed in her mother’s weepy hugs, Kash’s sticky grabbings, and Baba’s stoic silence. After coming back into the office of Mrs Smooth-Hair, Fareeda’s attention was immediately drawn to the mass of bushy, curly brown hair that wapped her in the face.  
“Sorry! Oh my God, sorry!” cried Miss Decidedly-Not-Smooth-Hair. “I can’t believe I just did that! My name’s Bryony, by the way, but everyone just calls me Bri. You can too, if you like.”  
Sputtering, Fareeda replied “I should hope so, after you just slapped me with all that hair!”  
“Oh I know, I know! I’m terrible!” 

A small clearing of the throat interrupted the tall girl’s wailing. “Now that you’ve had a chance to introduce Fareeda to your infamous hair, I’ll let you take the lead, and show her around. There’s lots to do today, and if I know your friends, they’re lurking around a corner somewhere near here, waiting for you. So, off you go! I’ll see you girls later, bye-bye!”  
Chivvied out the door, Fareeda turned to the girl next to her. “So-”  
“So-”  
“Oh no! Oh, you go first!”  
“No, no, it’s fine, you go.”  
“Oh- well, I’m Bri, and, um, I guess I’ll go through a few things with you. Uh, we’re in the same house, which is Red, and, um, we’re gonna share a room so I can look after you and show you what to do, and, uh, stuff. Oh, and we’re, uh, in the same tutor group, and we, uh-”  
“It’s alright, dear, you do know I’m not going to bite you! Honestly, you’re more nervous than I am, and I’m the one who’s new here! Really, I don’t think-”

A deafening cry interrupted Fareeda’s gentle admonishing, making both girls shriek quietly and whirl around to face the clearly evil attacker who was about to kill them, only to find a vivacious-looking blonde barrelling towards them at high speed.  
Fareeda could practically hear the screech of her heels as she came to an ungraceful stop in front of Bri. Tripping over her platform shoes, the currently unknown girl wildly waved her arms around, trying to regain her balance and almost smacking both of them in the face.  
“Ros! Ros!” Bri grabbed one of the-so-called-Ros’ arms and quickly hauled her onto her feet again, planting her firmly on the ground.  
“Thanks, Bri! Whoops, nearly went crashing there. Oh, hello, who’re you?” With this, Ros whipped around to face Fareeda.  
“Oh, um, Fareeda-”  
“Freddie”  
“Uh, Freddie, this is Rosalind, my, um, best friend. And, erm, Ros this is Freddie-” at this, a nervous glance to Freddie who nodded in confirmation- “who is my buddy for this year. We’re, um, gonna be roommates this year.” Bri’s cringe at finishing her sentence seemed unintelligible to Freddie, until she saw Ros’ eyes widen and brows furrow.  
“So you’re the bitch who stole my best friend!” 

Freddie’s dumbfounded gasping was interrupted by Ros bursting into peals of laughter, quickly assuring them both that she was kidding, although “I am sad that I can’t board with Bri this term. But at least I get to be with Deaky this year. She’s way neater than I am, I really need this!”  
Freddie was submerged in a wave of new information, and had to hurry to clarify what was going on. “Hold on with the exposition, my darling. Who the hell is ‘Dee-kee’? Why are you boarding with her? Is that a good thing?”  
More peals of laughter erupted from the decidedly chaotic girl in front of her. “Yes, yes, it’s a good thing!” Even more delighted laughter. “Deaky is our other friend, she- DEAKY!”  
Blinking at the sudden change of volume, Freddie turned to Bri. “Does she do this all the time?”  
Bri whispered back conspiratorially, “Yes, she does. All the time. You’ll get used to it.”

Ros belted between the two girls, body-slamming into a fourth who was extracting herself from a car, and then promptly dropped the numerous bags she was carrying.  
“Ooh! Ow, Ros, that really hurt. What’s up with you?”  
“We’re gonna be roommates this year!” A sigh. “Can you believe it?” Another sigh. “Because Freddie has stolen Bri from me!”  
Sharply, “Who?”  
Anticipating what was about to happen, Freddie steeled herself for the inevitable. Sure enough, her hand was roughly grabbed, and she felt her arm screaming in its socket as she was dragged towards the elusive Deaky. Looking up, she saw a girl who had the bushiest hair she had ever seen, including Briony who she had just been introduced to. Slightly pouting lips, and a pale complexion, Freddie soon realised she had been set up to join the most beautiful group of friends ever.


	2. First Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the first day, and Jen isn't sure about the new girl.

The insane bleeping of Ros’ alarm clock was what woke Jen from her sleep. The two girls both groaned, and threw the covers off themselves.   
“Oof, I forgot how crap these beds are. Back pain, here I come”, she murmured.  
“Quit it, Granny! You’ll survive”, laughed Ros. How she could be cheerful in the morning was beyond Jen’s understanding, especially since she always stayed up late, while Jen was always in bed by ten, yet woke up like a zombie.   
“Ugh, look at my hair… What can I do with this?” Looking despondently in the mirror, she started to pick at the nest of fluffy curls on her head. “What was I thinking, getting this haircut?”  
“I think it’s nice, it looks much better than when you had it straightened. It’s just because it’s short now, there’s nothing to weigh it down, so it’s all floaty now. Um, and the perm.”  
Sighing, she turned to Ros, and begrudgingly agreed. She did suppose that she looked a bit nicer now.   
“Come on then, get your uniform on, and let’s go down to breakfast. I bet Bri and Freddie would agree that your hair looks nice now!”  
Rolling her eyes, Jen reminded Ros that Freddie didn’t know her when her hair was straight. As Ros was about to retort, fixing her signature bows into her hair, the door crashed open and Freddie was there, staring at them halfway between their pyjamas and school uniform.   
“Oh my God, so sorry darlings, so sorry!”   
Noticing that Freddie’s gaze seemed to be lingering, Jen blushingly turned away, hiding her slightly pudgy tummy from the new girl’s eyes. While Freddie hastily left the room, Ros caught her eye, and soon the friends were laughing, while Freddie continued to apologise and duck away. 

Alone in their room again, they both continued getting changed until they were ready. Noticing that Ros’ collar was messed up, she reached over to gently fix it, and while she was doing so noticed a small smudge of dirt above her eyebrow.   
“Honestly, one day in and you’re already mucky. How did you manage to do that? It’s only seven-thirty.”   
“Oh, thanks mum.” Ros rolled her eyes. “Now, before we go to breakfast, give me your timetable so I can work out which classes we have together. Go on, hand it over!”   
Smiling slightly despite herself, Jen accordingly scooped up her timetable from the desk and gave it to Ros to be highlighted, annotated and doodled on. While Ros happily squealed (“Yes! Maths! Ew, ICT!”), Jen tied her tie to the sound of Ros’ quiet scritching. Suddenly there was a pounding on the door, accompanied by Bri crying “Come on guys, let’s go! Breakfast time! Get your ass away from the mirror, Ros!”  
Affronted, Ros replied “I’ll have you know that my ass is nowhere near the mirror! It’s actually by the desk!”   
“...Jen?”  
“Yes, Bri?”  
“Is she putting lip gloss on? You are, aren’t you?”  
Glancing over at Ros, who did in fact have a tube of shiny lip gloss to her lips frantically shook her head at Jen.   
“No.”  
A grateful thumbs up from Ros, and they were on their way. Opening the door, Jen came face-to-face with Freddie, who was standing in the doorway.   
“Jesus! When was the last time I didn’t see you at the door?”  
While she and Freddie stared at each other, the tension slowly built, as Jen found herself unable to look away. She felt like she couldn’t possibly be the first person to look away. She was distracted until she felt fabric brush against her thighs.   
“Agh!”  
“Sorry! Sorry!” Ros was flattened against the doorframe, trying to squeeze past Jen and Freddie. “I was just trying to get past, but you seemed, erm, busy. Shall we go, yeah?”   
While all four girls nodded they walked into the corridor and down towards the dining hall.   
“So, guys, me and Deaky have got maths together, first thing today. Give me your timetables after we sit down. Brought my highlighter with me, and all!” she exclaimed, bringing out a pastel pink highlighter with a flourish. After they’d grabbed trays and food and sat down together, Ros held out her hands for the timetables, which were duly given. Quickly getting to work, sticking out her tongue, she was soon ready to proclaim “Okay so, Bri and me and Deaky have maths together, and Bri and me have Chem. Oh, and you and Bri, Deaky, you have Physics. Boring bitches. Um, and Freddie, you’ve got Music with Deaks. But that’s it, I think.” Addressing Freddie now, she continued, “We’re quite science-y group, I think, although I’m pretty crap at the whole business. Though Art, English and Music is a pretty nice group. If I could actually write music I’d do it, but I’ve got like one good idea for every thousand, so I’m stuck with Latin for now. Also, tutorial starts in ten minutes. Just thought you should know.”  
Surprised shrieks rose around the table, as everyone scrambled to get their bags and books before rushing to class. “Come with me, Freddie, we’ve got Miss Beach. She’s super nice, promise.” Jen saw her roommate grabbing Freddie’s wrist and disappearing around the corner while Bri was still stuffing folders into her backpack. “Who’s your tutor, Jen? I’ve got that P.E. teacher whose name I still don’t know. You know, the one who always ruffles my hair. Just my luck I’d get a teacher who wants to touch my hair all the time!”   
“The big blonde one? Ugh, I hate her, and I’ve got her too, so at least I can watch you being uncomfortable.” 

Smiling at each other, Jen and Bri shuffled off to their classroom, and were chatting to each other about the summer while on the way, when Bri paused. “Jen?” She hummed in response. “What do you think about Freddie? I think she seems quite nice, but I’m not sure what she thinks about me? About, sorry, us, you know? As a group, um? Or maybe, it’s too soon. Or, um-”  
“I don’t like her.” Jen said, suddenly and finally.   
“Maybe you think- oh! Uh, that’s fine. Why? Or, uh, don’t answer me and just walk into the room. That’s fine too.” She could hear Bri rushing in to hastily slam her stuff onto the desk next to Jen. “Why don’t you like Freddie? You barely know her!”  
Jen snorted in response. “Please, that’s what you were getting at. You never ask what we think of anything unless you want to hear that we dislike something as much as you do.”  
Gasping in affected and playful hurt, she laughed in reply “Well isn’t someone on her top game this morning! Are you sure you’re not taking psychology? And I don’t hate her. I’m just not sure about whether we’re friends.”   
Instead of replying to Bri, Jen turned her attention to the teacher who was currently dragging her fingers through her perm. Shuddering, she pulled a face at Bri. ‘Your turn next’ she mouthed. They giggled their way through the class until the bell finally rang at they dashed out of the classroom. “Ew, ew, ew!” Bri cried as soon as they’d made it through the door. “I don’t know if I can actually handle that every morning!”  
“I could actually smell the grease on her fingers, yeuch!” Stopping outside the maths classroom, the two smiled at each other. “It’s alright if you don’t like her, Bri. It’s still early days. You might change your mind, but I won’t.”  
“How did you-?”  
Jen smiled knowingly, which made Bri turn a light shade of pink. “What?” she exclaimed, flustered.  
“You worry so loudly, I can hear it when you’re not even there.” 

The friends continued to chit-chat back and forth until Ros came jogging up to them, out of breath. “Wow, that girl can talk! And I’m saying that! She’s nice though. Didja know everything about her? ‘Cus I do, now!”  
Jen could see Ros glancing back and forth between herself and Bri, trying to work out what they thought, and what they’d been talking about. “Oh, was that too mean? I do like her, she’s just a lot, that’s all.” Continuing to watch her friends’ impassive faces she began to squirm. “Oh please, don’t do that! I’m sorry!” Jen could see Bri struggling not to giggle, so she reached out to pinch her thigh under the table. Soon the two began gasping with barely concealed laughter, while Ros pouted at them both. “Oh I see, I see, laugh at your friend. Yeah, yeah, thanks guys! I really appreciate-” She quickly broke off as the teacher came striding into the room, books under his arm. Settling down, he began to redistribute the girls according to his seating plan. Jen ended up stranded across the room from her friends, while Ros was unashamedly placed right in front of the teachers desk. Opening her new textbook to the right page, Jen quietly got to work, letting the sound of Ros’ bickering and complaining set the background for her work. “Oh but sir! Why do I have to sit here by myself? Oh, that! Well, it was just one time, sir! Oh please, sir, I can barely see the board from so close. I’d be much better-” 

Before Jen knew it, maths was over, and, armed with the set homework, strided off to ICT. She heard footsteps jogging up behind her. “Deaky, wait!” Whirling around, she saw Freddie trotting up to meet her. “Could you point me in the way of the English department? You see, Ros walked me to art, but she didn’t have the time to tell me where to go after that. Then I saw your lovely hair bobbing along, and I was so glad, darling!” 

Jen unceremoniously cut her off with a silent point of the finger, and then dashed away while Freddie was following her directing. ICT was fascinating, and Jen was so happy to finally be able to start working on real problems. She didn’t have time to coddle new girls who made Ros sad because they started hanging out with her best friend. Even if that best friend was conflicted on whether she even liked the new girl. Even if Ros didn’t realise she was sad yet. And that wouldn’t be so much of a problem, if it wasn’t for- well. Shaking her head to remove the thoughts that were distracting her from her important computing work, Jen glanced up at the clock. It was only two minutes until the end of lesson, so she began to sneakily slide her pens back into her pencil case, and closed over her notebook. Weaving a strand of her hair between her fingers, Jen caught sight of Ros lurking outside the door, animatedly waving at her through the glass. As soon as the bell rang, Jen scooped up her stationary and ducked out the door, bumping hips with Ros. 

They returned to their room, and Jen sat on her bed, flipping through all the new worksheets, textbooks and papers she got that day, while Ros rummaged in her drawer. Eventually Jen was hit in the face by a chocolate bar.   
“Thanks”, she mumbled, distracted. “Hey, Ros?”  
Her response was muffled by the chocolate in her mouth, but Jen knew she was paying attention.   
“What do you think about Freddie?”  
“Yeah, I think she’s nice. She’s very funny. This morning she was telling me about this time her brother, he, uh… Deaky, are you okay? You’ve gone all quiet.”  
“I’m fine. What about Bri? How do you think she feels?”  
Ros instantly whipped around to face Jen, quickly swallowing down the last bite of her snack, and almost choking. After a few hearty thumps on the back, Ros was able to gasp out “Did she say something to you? You don’t seem to like her very much, but I thought Bri was alright. I mean, it’s early days yet, I’m sure you’ll change your mind. We do have to at least talk to her, she is Bri’s roommate.”  
“I’m not so sure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't expect the second chapter to go this direction already...  
> Don't worry, they'll all come around soon, friends are friends! (but I always find myself hating new girls on the first day, and then I'm friendly...)


	3. First Day II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the sound of a slamming door, Bri looked up to see Freddie striding into the room. Throwing her bag onto her bed she exclaimed “Your friend is rude! Did you know that?” Propping herself up on one elbow to look at Freddie, she asked “Which friend?” Not Ros, she presumed, because Bri was yet to meet a person who disliked her best friend.   
> “Jennifer Deacon!”

At the sound of a slamming door, Bri looked up to see Freddie striding into the room. Throwing her bag onto her bed she exclaimed “Your friend is rude! Did you know that?” Propping herself up on one elbow to look at Freddie, she asked “Which friend?” Not Ros, she presumed, because Bri was yet to meet a person who disliked her best friend.   
“Jennifer Deacon!”   
Right. That would make sense, as Jen had told Bryony that she disliked the new girl. She’d also seemed to think that Bri didn’t like Freddie, but in truth, she still hadn’t made up her mind. One day wasn’t very long to have known someone, and she said as much to Freddie.   
“Well, my dear, you weren’t there, so you can’t possibly know the extent of her rudeness, but fortunately for you, I shall fill you in right away. I asked her to show me where my next class was, and she simply pointed and ran away! Can you believe that?”  
Easily. “She’s just shy, is all. And Jen hates being late for class. I’m sure that was all it was,” was what she said, however. Then, after noting Freddie’s lack of response, “Do you want to go and see if Ros has any spare chocolate? She always has tons at the start of term.” That provoked quite an exuberant outburst, so she got up and walked to the door, beckoning for Freddie to follow. 

Once in the corridor, Bri decided to broach the difficult subject again. She felt like she couldn’t let it go, even though Freddie might not even care. “I wouldn’t worry about Jen,” she began, awkwardly. “She always gets a bit touchy at the start of term. She misses her parents, you know? I mean, apart from Ros, she’s the furthest away from home, and she misses her parents during the week. But she does go home at weekends. Do you? Or, um, will you, I suppose? Since we haven’t actually had a weekend yet. You- you get what I mean.”  
Laughing kindly, Freddie replied “I will, yes. I think my parents might actually worry that I’d joined a cult or something if I didn’t come home at least once a week. Where’s Ros from?”  
Blinking at the change of subject, Bri stopped, and eloquently said “What?”  
“You said that Jen is from the furthest away, except for Ros. So where does Ros live?”  
Ah.  
“Ah. Um, Truro. In Cornwall?” The end of her sentence turned itself into a question once Bri caught sight of Freddie’s incredulous expression.  
“But that’s five hours from here!”  
“Six, actually, in my mum’s tiny little Renault. Hi guys!”  
Bri hadn’t even noticed that Ros had opened the door to her room, nor even that they had reached the other end of the corridor.   
“Are you bitching about me out here? Because you do know that’s rude, don’t you?”  
Rolling her eyes at Ros’ comment, Bri shouldered past her into the room, only to pause at the strong glare on Deaky’s face that was practically propelling her backwards out of the room.   
“Uh, no. No. No?” She was stuttering under the force of Deaky’s gaze. “We were just talking about where we’re from, and, uh, yeah.”  
“And you wanted to come and steal my Crunchies, didn’t you?”  
Throwing herself at Ros and knocking them both onto the bed, Freddie shouted “Yes! I fucking love Crunchies, holy shit!”   
Stunned, Bryony looked up and made eye contact with Deaky, before all four of them suddenly burst into laughter.   
“You’re alright you are, Fred!” she laughed.  
“Freddie, darling, Freddie. Never Fred. I’m not a builder.”   
They all broke out into more giggles, which eventually died away.   
“Oof, get off me, you lump!” shouted Ros, scrabbling at Freddie, who pressed herself onto Ros even harder. “Agh! Off! Deaky, help! I’m being suffocated!” More wriggling caused more yelling, as Deaky got caught in the squirming mass.   
“What the actual fuck? Why are your elbows so pointy?” she hissed. “I’ve never known someone so boney!”   
Freddie started wiggling her eyebrows, and everyone burst out in laughter again. Just as Bri was reaching down to haul up Ros and Freddie, the bell rang for the next set of lessons. They all groaned in unison at the thought of having to go outside and do sport.   
Bri and Freddie returned to their room to get changed, Ros and Deaky started to pull on their P.E kit. “Ugh, I hate this colour on me! Why not pink? Or blue? Barely anything goes well with blondes…”   
“Anything can work if you have the balls, darling!” Freddie sang as they left the room.   
“That- that was quite good, actually,” Bri commented.   
“Quite good, darling?” Freddie questioned scathingly. “I’m amazing.”  
“Oh, uh, yes, um, sure.” She stuttered out, worrying about whether Freddie was really upset or not. “It’s just that- oh, nevermind.” Bri started to berate herself for thinking that Freddie would be interested in their band.   
“No, no, what is it?”  
“Um, well, we- uh, that is Ros, Deaky and me, we have a band. But, um, we don’t actually have a proper singer. I mean, I’m alright, I think, and Ros is pretty great, but it’s not like you can hear her over the drums without a microphone or something.”  
“And Jennifer?”  
“Jennifer? Oh, uh, Deaky. I’ve not heard anyone who’s not a teacher say her full name for ages, I actually forgot that was her name for a second! Oh, she’s-,” Bri paused to tug her polo shirt over her head. “Well. She’s crap, to be honest. Can’t sing to save her life.” 

The conversation continued as they hurried out onto the grass for their sports lesson. Meeting up with Ros and Deaky again, Bri was quick to explain to them what she and her roommate had just been talking about. “I think she could really be great! And you were telling me, weren’t you Freddie, that you’ve got some song ideas. So, uh, what do you think?”  
“Ooh, yeah! What’s your favourite-”  
“GET MOVING GIRLS! THIS IS NOT A GRANNIES’ TEA-PARTY!”  
“-genre of music?” finished Ros cheerfully.   
“Well, I quite like-”  
“GO, GO, GO! GET GOING TAYLOR! I’M TALKING TO YOU DEACON!”  
“Nevermind, we can talk about this later. Let’s go for a run, dears!”  
The four girls sighed in unison, and together started to jog slowly.   
“Actually, I really like eighties music myself! Top bangers, the lot of them!”  
Ros jumped as a teacher placed a hand on her back, which made Bri laugh, as Ros was never able to tell when someone was sneaking up on her. “If you can talk, Taylor, you can run.”  
Ros nodded frantically, and sprinted off across the field.   
“What the hell? I had totally, and reasonably, might I add, assumed she was as unfit and hopeless as me, but that was truly sporting! Sporty! Sportive!”   
Bri laughed to herself, exchanging a ‘look’ with Deaky. “No, no, she’s nowhere near as useless as the rest of us. But don’t worry, you’re in good company. Deaky and me are terrible at P.E, aren’t we?”   
“We’re certainly not on the lacrosse team.”  
Freddie seemed taken aback by Deaky spitting the last words.   
Bri leant down to Freddie and informed her that they don’t like the lacrosse team. While they had been loitering and bad-mouthing the school sports teams, Ros had lapped around the athletics track, and came up behind them.   
“Ugh, I hate athletics,” Ros moaned as she wiped her forehead. “Why are you looking at me like that?” Bri would have loved to reply, were it not for the fact that her brain had been brought to a screeching halt by Ros’ white shirt and sports skirt riding up while she stretched. Fortunately that angel on earth, Deaky, intervened to save Bri from humiliation.   
“We were just telling Freddie about how you’re secretly a sports star. She’s not pleased. You know what, let’s go, it’s lunchtime.”

The group started walking back up the hill, with Deaky hanging back to have a private word with Bri.   
“What was that?” She immediately leapt into the conversation, leaving her words typically unsugarcoated.   
“What was, um, what?”  
“That! You were staring at Ros for a good minute there. You were like a teenage boy in a crappy movie, when he- oh no.”  
“Oh no?” Bri asked, nervously.  
“Oh. Oh.” She could see the realisation dawning behind Deaky’s eyes. “You like her! You do, don’t you?”  
While Bri’s mind went on an internal swearing spree, cursing the fact that her friend was so perceptive, she sharply said “no”, and jogged ahead to join Ros in her conversation with Freddie. 

Deaky harrumphed and also trotted forwards to join her friends. “What were you guys talking about?”  
“Your mum,” guffawed Tina Staffell, thumping Bryony on the back as she strode past, causing her to lurch forwards.   
“Thanks, Tina,” she muttered, wincing and rubbing her newly-aching shoulder blades. Ros sympathetically rubbed her back, but suddenly turned to face Tina, eyes narrowed, and hissed “Fuck off, Tina!” Tina, however, just laughed mockingly and sauntered away.   
“Who was that?” Freddie innocently asked a scowling Deaky. She opened her mouth to reply, but in a stunning example of Bri’s abysmal luck, someone else came up behind them and decided to give her own explanation.  
“Did no-one tell you? Ah, I suppose they wouldn’t, would they? It’s only your first day, and it’s not like they’d want you to know.”  
“Know what?” Freddie questioned, frantically flipping her head between Bri and Paula. Paula Prenter. Paula fucking Prenter. Paula Prenter was about to tell Freddie the one thing that she’d rather the new girl never knew. As she was desperately searching for an escape route, one that would preferably also kill Paula and reverse time by a few minutes to remove any memory of the topic from Freddie’s mind. Fortunately for her, a small blonde saviour came barreling into the scene, and hit Ros in the stomach with a loud cry.  
“Ow, Clare! That fucking hurt, silly girl!”  
The first year girl laughed and poked her sister in the stomach. “You didn’t come and see me last night! You said you would, but you didn’t. I’ll tell mum, you know I will.”  
Poking her sister in retaliation, Ros took the opportunity to move the group forward, leaving Paula behind with her friends. “Have you met my sister yet, Freddie? This is my kiddie sister, Clare. Clare, this is my new friend Freddie. And don’t tell mum, yeah? Come on, we’ll eat lunch with you and your little buddies today.”  
The Taylor sisters’ chatter faded away as the group moved ahead without Bri. Paula leaned up to her ear and whispered “Don’t get comfy, May. It’s not fair for her to not know, right?”  
Without answering her, Bryony rushed forwards to catch up with the group, mind racing. 

“Really, darling, what was that all about? I’ve never seen a collection of such stereotypically bitchy girls in my life, darling, it was over-the-top.”  
Deaky practically bristled, and witheringly said “That was Tina Staffell. She’s a bitch. And that was Paula Prenter. Also a bitch.”  
Freddie seemed bewildered as she grabbed a tray and started piling mashed potatoes onto her plate. “But-”  
“Hand over the potatoes, Rosie’s friend!”  
“Don’t even talk to my friends, Clare.” Bri was again grateful for every Taylor that was able to mercifully wriggle her way into her life, rescuing her from conversations she really didn’t want to have. Ros flashed her a quick smile, and bumped her sister in the back with her tray, urging her to move forwards and sit down at a table. Once they’d all sat, Ros returned their attention to the original topic of conversation.   
“So, the band. I think, first of all-”  
“Are you still going on about your band, Rosie? You know what Dad thinks about that.”  
“I do actually, thanks for the reminder, but I couldn’t care less. Talk to me again and I’ll stab you. But, the band. Should we go for the competition this year?”  
Freddie perked up from where she had begun to hunch over her carb-loaded plate. “There’s a competition? That we can be in?”   
“Yeah, yeah, it’s usually at the- Wait a second. Is that mashed potato on toast?”  
Guiltily lowering her, frankly, disgusting meal, Freddie nodded, before gesturing for Ros to continue. Instead, Deaky picked up the thread of discussion.   
“The Gold Competition is open to anyone in any year, it;s held in June, and you have to pass through all the prelim rounds. Bri’s been in it every year, haven’t you? But we’ve never won.”  
“We?” Clare interjected, which prompted Ros to wrap her arms around her sister and sigh dramatically.  
“Well, of course I joined in year eight, when I came to the school, didn’t I? And of course, everything became much better. And then Deaky came and it became even greater. And now Freddie is here, so we must be perfect now, right?” She ended her minor monologue by switching from being draped over her sister to sitting upright, poking at the leftovers on her plate. “We’ve got to go to lessons now, but meet us in the music department after school, Freddie, and we’ll go through a couple of things, see what kind of level we’re at. Come on, menace.” With that Ros and her sister left the dining hall, accompanied by Deaky, leaving Bri and Freddie at the table alone.   
“What’ve you got next then?”  
“Well, it should be Music, but I’ve gotten an email-thingy telling me that it’s cancelled, so I suppose nothing.”  
“Alright, let’s go back to the room then. I’ll show you my guitar, if you’d like?” Talking about music was the one area, aside from astronomy, where Bryony didn’t freeze up or stutter, and so they were able to have an easy conversation as they strolled back to their room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fuck, this is exposition central... I'm sorry for dumping so much into this chapter, but I needed to get the ball rolling. I can feel my old English teacher crying at all the literary sins I've committed in this chapter... Oh, well!
> 
> Don't worry, we're not having a fully-fledged bitch fight (not yet at least), but I think we can all agree that someone has to be the bad guy, and we know who that is...
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me in this foray into writing, and I appreciate every single person who reads this! And don't worry guys, I know my writing style is EXTREMELY dialogue heavy, but I'm trying to work out how to cut it down! 
> 
> (And Clare, my darling... Heavily based on the many little sisters that are in my school... As a direct to You [You knows who they are], the direct Nina quotes are on their way... She's a blessing to any author looking for inspiration)

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, and since I am English, this is going to be heavily Anglicised. I have made the names into names that I think girls that go to my school would actually be called.


End file.
